Somalia is a country located in the Horn of Africa which officially consists of five federal member states, namely Galmudug, Hirshabelle, Jubaland, South West, Puntland and the municipality of Benadir. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, the Gulf of Aden to the north, the Somali Sea and Guardafui Channel to the east, and Kenya to the southwest. With a land area of 637,657 square kilometers, Somalia’s terrain consists mainly of plateaus, plains and highlands. Its coastline is more than 3,333 kilometers in length, the longest of mainland Africa. It has been described as being roughly shaped “like a tilted number seven”.
Figure 01: Location of Somalia
Somalia’s current climate is hot and dry, with uneven rainfall and regular droughts . It experiences a northeast monsoon from December to February, at which time temperatures in the north become moderate while the south is hot, a southwest monsoon from May to October occurs when the north is extremely hot. Hot and humid conditions occur between monsoon periods. Land degradation is a prominent environmental issue in the country, driven by drought, desertification and poor agricultural and pastoral practices However, the rains in Somalia are quite irregular from year to year, in addition, they usually occur in the form of short showers and thunderstorms, and given the aridity of the soil, which absorbs water with difficulty, when they are more intense than usual, they can give rise to flash floods.
The best time to visit Somalia in its entirety is winter, from December to February, to avoid both the summer heat in the north and the rains of the transitional seasons. It is worth while to recall that in the mountainous northern area, nights can be cold, while in the inland southwestern areas, the climate in this period is hot. Moreover, in December, especially in the first half, tropical cyclones are still possible
On January 12, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, which was reported to the WHO on December 31, 2019.Somalia recorded its first case of the coronavirus mid-March in a student recently returned from China and first confirmed case on March 15 . On 16 March, the government banned passengers who had been to Iran, China, Italy, or South Korea in the past 14 days from entering Somalia. On 17 March, the government announced that schools and universities would be closed for 15 days effective from 19 March and that large gatherings were prohibited. The Somali Aviation Ministry ordered a suspension of all international flights for 15 days starting from 18 March, with the possibility of exceptions for humanitarian flights
As part of strategic initiatives to halt the spread of COVID-19, the Federal Government of Somalia set up a toll-free call center with the support of the United Nations . And they formed a task force to respond to COVID-19.The Somali authorities have ramped up a national public information campaign on COVID-19, using both traditional and new ways of reaching the public. This includes using radio, billboards and outdoor posters to alert and inform citizens about coronavirus symptoms and preventive measures and guidelines, as well as social media platforms. Somalia’s federal and regional authorities, in conjunction with various organizations, have undertaken a wide range of measures to combat COVID-19’s spread. These measures include putting in place water points across Dhobley town, in Somalia’s Jubaland state, for visitors and locals to wash their hands with soap as well as screening travelers along the busy transit route connecting Somalia to Kenya in order to detect any carriers of the virus.Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire announced $5 million had been allocated to address the pandemic.
COVID-19 is still an unclear infectious global pandemic. In Somalia, the first confirmed case for COVID-19 was identified on 16 th of March 2020. By the end of the February 2021, pandemic situation showed a rapid spread among the community in Somalia. As of 27th May 2021, Somalia has reported a total of 7162 active cases with 6717 recovered cases and 768 deaths. There was a negative value in deaths on May 2020.The majority of cases ware reported in March 2021. So, it can be conclude that March 2021 was the critical period of spread of COVID-19 in Somalia.
The Confirmed and Recovered cases of Somalia is lower when comparing with the neighboring countries but death rate is approximately same in all neighboring countries. When comparing with Asian country(SL) the number of confirmed cases and death cases are higher than Somalia but recovered rate cases approximately same. Both SL and Somalia show that deaths in May 2021 is higher than other months. When comparing European country(Germany) all the confirmed cases ,recovered cases and death cases are higher than Somalia.So comparing with Asian and European countries Somalia has not effected too much to covid 19 pandemic.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported Naval Coronavirus (COVID-19) as still an unclear infectious global pandemic. This report was focused on COVID-19 distribution of Somalia based on the data from 22nd of January 2020 to 27 th of May 2021. Number of COVID-19 confirmed cases, deaths and recovered cases in Somalia was analyzed by this report. Coronavirus data set was used to getting the data related to the Somalia There was a negative value in deaths on May 2020 . For that the negative value was replaced as 0 . So new data set was used to visualized the graphs. This error may be happens due to due to mistakes happen when data entry.
In this Somalia data set all the cases of Somalia reported for whole country. So it cant compare pandemic situation of Somalia by province wise. So when comparing the Somalia with other countries this report used whole country cases to compare them. When comparing other countries it clearly show that Somalia was not affected too much for covid 19 pandemic compare to Asian and European countries. When compared to its neighboring countries although the reporting of the disease occurred for all countries in similar time periods, Somalia was able to control the situation and reach a much stable state than other countries.
The data was available for the period from 22 January 2020 to 27 May 2021 only therefore interpretations regarding the more recent status of the countries cannot be made. Therefore, it can be said that more accurate and preferable conclusions would have been possible if more recent data was available.
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